Time Box Instruments

by **resincum** » Thu Mar 21, 2019 6:33 pm

that's the gutshot culture I like to see :rock:

looks as crazy as they sound :evil:

by **crochambeau** » Thu Mar 21, 2019 7:15 pm

I think I have some chunks of that same cheap pad per trace board shoved in a drawer somewhere. Mine absolutely resists solder, so it's possible that hot-snot is doing more than keeping the big parts anchored.

I jest, though I'm glad I'm not the party privy to repairing that thing.

They do look like fun.

by **NoizeMe** » Tue May 28, 2019 2:43 pm

Hi everybody! :animal:

I'm new to this forum
I was googling for info about time box instruments and I stumbled on this thread

was hoping to find more info on this pedal builder but he seems pretty underground ..

my friend has this monster :

: IMG_20161003_092400.jpg (97.3 KiB) Viewed 1294 times

and it is

INSANE!! I only tried it once but its easily the craziest pedal I've ever plugged into.

I think its a different (older / custom ?) version of this :

I'm planning to get one (hopefully a few lol) when I have a little extra scratch. I'll report back when I do :thumb:

anybody know more about time box instruments though??

by **Dandolin** » Tue May 28, 2019 4:28 pm

Welcome! I got nothing new, but I am all :snax:

about it, so welcome any and all info zazz :doom:

by **K2000** » Tue May 28, 2019 8:14 pm

My Unknown Glitch pedal came a few weeks ago (took like 5 weeks). Seeing this thread made me realize I should try it. It took long enough to arrive that I forgot all about it.

All in all, it's okay/good. It's an oscillator with a Pitch control, an input option, Mix knob for blending, photo-electric sensor toggle, and volume.

On it's own, it's slightly boring (the most trebly settings have some glitchy movement which is cool) but it's more fun being fed into other pedals as a source or part of the signal chain. Then pedals downstream get more interesting and can be somewhat unpredictable. A drone loop fed into the input works pretty well, with (for example) a Stomping Stones Bit Crusher and Death Metal downstream, then playing with the Unknown Glitch's knobs and light sensor. Even with the Volume all the way down, downstream pedals react to it. There's a certain amount of latency, a one second lag between action and result sometimes. It seems like maybe the photo eye controls a voltage starve? I'm not sure.

Overall it's pretty cool, not anything revolutionary on its own but could be useful. For me, it's often a question of available space, and in order to get cool sounds from this unit, I need to supplement it with other stuff (like a Ditto loop input maybe, and glitchy fuzz downstream) which makes it a qualified success. It was priced right, about $77 and then $16 shipping.

This is the unit I have: Unknown Glitch circuit bent pocket noise synth:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/686611109/unknown-glitch-circuit-bent-pocket-noise?ref=shop_home_active_3

I took a break and as I try the unit again, it's behaving differently. I don't know if it changes as it stays plugged in longer, or what. Certain settings I liked before don't seem to work the same. Now the unit pulses when it's not in Photo Eye mode, which it didn't do before. Maybe it's user error but it seems unpredictable now.

I like it, but I want a certain amount of predictability, and I'm not sure this one will make it into a live setting. But I also need to generate samples, so it's probably going to be useful sometimes.

I'll give it a solid B. It's for experimentalists. Sorry this review is a little scattered but I wrote it while I was testing it. These are just my impressions.

by **Dandolin** » Tue May 28, 2019 10:30 pm

Great write-up :joy:

Thanks! Is it sensitive to variance on the input or output?

by **K2000** » Tue May 28, 2019 11:24 pm

Dandolin wrote:Great write-up Thanks! Is it sensitive to variance on the input or output?

If I understand your question, then "yes" very much so. Like I turned the knobs on the Bit Crusher volume (downstream) all the way off, and the distortion pedals after that still make the signal sound like noise, just different. And running different samples (bass heavy, treble heavy) into the front of it had results that didn't exactly reflect the sounds running into it.

I'm not sure if I understand your question though.

Also, sometimes I was using the DBA Absolute Destruction directly after it, which makes everything sound kind of terrible, but works well at making synth tones ripe for distortion. I think it might change the impedance of line signals going into it or something.

The Unknown Glitch seems very interactive though.

Using it again now, it no longer pulses when the pHoto Eye is off. And the Photo Eye is in full force, cutting the signal completely when covered. It didn't do that before. I dunno if temperature effects it's operation, or waht. It's very unpredictable. Now theres no signal at all, unless Photo Eye is on. Weird. Aha, if you're not using the input, you should leave that jack clear. Or something. Removing the (unused) input jack made a big difference.

:idk:

by **NoizeMe** » Tue Jun 25, 2019 9:00 am

well I took a plunge and ordered the pocket pitch shifter / vocoder (on sale for $68, score! :thumb:

)

https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/5825667 ... er-circuit

pretty stoked :!!!:

by **K2000** » Tue Jun 25, 2019 10:35 am

Did not make it into my setup. Maybe useful for recording samples, we'll see.

by **NoizeMe** » Mon Jul 15, 2019 10:44 pm

sooo this little monster showed up (pretty good time imo) and OMFG!! juust WOW!!!! the demos dont do this thing a bit of justice, especially the bass response on this bastard! :love:

this thing is lofi AF! :!!!:

wayy bigger sound than I was expecting. I only tried putting a few things through it so far but damn I already feel like I got my moneys worth of lofi blissed out audio destruction :thumb:

I'm very excited to keep fuckin with it
plugged a guitar in a nd I felt like I was shredding an atari or an old soundblaster card :rock:

lol tried it on a mic and it was like a fucking demonic cyborg. even just playing with feedback kept me blissfully entertained for an unreal amount of time. the bit crushing on it seems legit 8-bit and ultra crunchy. really hit me in the lofi love sweet spot. :love:

with nothing plugged in it makes a sincerely gritty drone synth
the guts are about what I expected kinda trashy lo l but still feel pretty solid to me. very obviously 100% hand made i like it I love that it fits in my pocket. just brings a big dumb grin to my face.

so also I'm gonna just share this cuz I ddunno if anyone else noticed or if its new or I didnt notice before or what but I was checking back at their shop to see if there were any new goodies (and there are! :snax:

) I stumbled upon their actual website apart from their etsy shop its:
https://timebox.ca
I might have just missed it when looking before I dunno but I'm totally ordering right from the site next time . this time I went through etsy and it was all good still. I'm happy :yay: